City moves forward with police station

Pasadena sets $1.4 million aside for design work

Pasadena City Council on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a $1.4 million contract for design of the proposed new police station.

To become final, the contract must also be approved on second reading, which is expected to occur at 7:30 p.m. July 5. That meeting is scheduled for Wednesday due to the July 4 holiday.

The city's contract with a team led by Manhattan Construction Co. covers only the design of the new station.

It's the first step of a two-step process that will also include a contract to build the approximately 85,000-square-foot station.

Design complete in January

The design is expected to be finished by January, when construction will begin, consulting engineer
Ed Barlow
told the council Tuesday. The station is expected to be ready in June 2008, Barlow said.

In April 2005, the council began acquiring land for the station with the appropriation of about $2.5 million to acquire Southmore Palms Apartments at 1256 Carroll Drive.

The site for the new station is a seven-acre parcel just east of City Hall, bounded by Davis Street, Dunhill Lane, Strawberry Road and Lee Avenue.

In addition to the 55-unit Southmore Palms complex of duplexes and triplexes, land acquisition for the site also included 10 single-family homes on the south side of Dunhill.

Construction of the new station is Pasadena's first use of the "design-build" method, in which the general contractor, architect and engineers compete for the job as a team. Once a team gets the contract, the firms work together to produce the building for a guaranteed maximum price.

The estimated cost to build the station is $15.3 million. During the design phase, the city and the design-build team will work out an agreed maximum construction price.

Pasadena officials have estimated the total cost of the new police station at $24 million, including land acquisition, construction and furnishings.

Part of the design contract will be to take account of the way today's policing priorities shift according to need, Barlow said. For example, Pasadena's gang task force is not as large as it once was, while the number of officers working on identity theft has increased, he said.

Manhattan Construction is the representative for the team that includes Morris Architects, lead architect; Dansby & Miller Architects, associate architect and landscape Knudson & Associates.